


A Dream of You

by VisionaryGalaxy



Series: A Thousand Futures of Me and You [139]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Boys In Love, Don't copy to another site, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Stephen Strange, M/M, Protective Tony Stark, hint of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-09 22:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18926158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisionaryGalaxy/pseuds/VisionaryGalaxy
Summary: "I don't belong in your universe."





	A Dream of You

   “I don’t belong in your universe.”

   Tony’s eyes fluttered closed and Stephen found his hands coming up to cup his cheeks, trembling limbs framing the face he’d fallen in love with this past week, impossible as it seemed. They were standing where they had first met, a rocky outcrop with the sounds of the ocean swells filling the air around them, the wind off the sea making his Cloak drift in the breeze. It was cold, too cold for long goodbyes, but Stephen couldn’t help it.

   Tony’s own hands came up, fingers encircling his wrists gently and a distant memory surfaced, another person whose heart he broke and left behind. Tony opened his eyes, looking up at him with a glassy gaze, “You could. You could stay, I can give you everything you need, everything you want. We could be happy.”

   The words were brutal, a spear through his heart because he _wanted_ that, with every fiber of his being. But the Tony standing in front of him, while still all the things that were his own minus a few key points of his past, wasn’t the Tony from his own world, his own dimension. And no amount of wanting would allow him to stay.

   “I can’t,” he whispered. “I’m needed there. I have responsibilities. I have a duty.”

   This Tony was so much more open, vulnerable, lacking the scars that made his own unbreachable at times. It was evident now, the flash of desperation in his expression, the subtle tightening of his hands, the plea on his tongue, “Please. You said there were other sorcerers. You’ve told me everything you’ve done for them over there…its enough.”

   Stephen lowered his head to Tony’s, fighting back his own tears, “its never enough. I wish it was.”

   Silence for a long moment, but for the crashing waves, the spray of water hitting their chilled skin, then; “I can come with you. I can leave this behind, I don’t mind.”

   Stephen made a pained noise, “I’m sorry. There can’t be two of you in the same place and time…the problems that would cause…especially how well-known you are…”

   Arms pulled him closer than, hugging him and leaving Stephen to wrap his own around him, chin resting on his shoulder. Fingers scratched at his scalp, soothing, “it isn’t fair,” Tony whispered thickly.

   “I know, I shouldn’t have-”

   “Don’t” he interrupted. “Don’t you dare say you should have ignored me that day.”

   Stephen pulled back, taking in his expression one last time, the adoration on that face. It was something he wasn’t likely to ever see in his own, where his Tony was so closed off, so weary, no matter how flirtatious he was. This was a dream, a blissful moment of realization and now it all had to be torn away.

   “I love you.”

   Tony offered a shaky smile, “good. Don’t you dare forget me.”

   “I wouldn’t. Not in a million years,” Stephen murmured, leaning down to press a final kiss to waiting lips.

   A ringing in his ears made him pull back with a gasp, Tony’s concerned voice echoing through his head as he doubled over. A prickling went along his skin, stomach twisting harshly then his vision was tunneling, and Stephen knew he was being pulled back, that Wong had found him and this was it.

\---

   “Strange? Hey, you alright?”

   Stephen was on his knees on familiar hardwood floors. He was breathing harshly and trying to stop the spinning in his head enough to answer the questions being asked of him. Wong’s face floated before his eyes first, the man kneeling and inspecting him closely, his touch grounding and strong.

   “Steady,” he murmured.

   “Strange?”

   Another voice, a painfully familiar voice.

   Stephen turned his head to find Tony Stark, _his_ Tony Stark, looking down at him with warm brown eyes filled to the brim with concern. He stared at him blankly for a long moment, memories rushing like an instant replay in his head.

   Soft touches, sarcastic quips, whispered confessions, moonlight and nakedness, pleasure and joy, the scratch of a goatee on his skin, the callouses of a mechanic’s fingers roaming over him, breakfasts and dinners, borrowed time and easy smiles.

   Tears stung his eyes and Stephen found himself looking at Wong, pleading with him silently to understand. It took all of three seconds before Wong was standing and ushering a protesting Tony from the room with a firm voice.

   Then he was being lifted, guided to a chair by the fire while tea was summoned and shoved into his trembling hands. Wong looks at him with his knowing eyes and Stephen couldn’t stand to look at him, mind dimensions away to a place that could have been a happy ending.

   “You should have known better,” Wong murmured. It wasn’t admonishing or even patronizing, simply resigned to Stephen’s inability to take care of his own heart half as well as he cared for the world.

   “I couldn’t help it. He was there and he was different, and he loved me Wong.”

   “He would have been a fool not to,” the man muttered. “But he isn’t the one you have to live with.”

   Stephen stared into the fire, “it won’t be difficult,” he whispered. “He will be the same as he always was.”

   “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

   He looked up at his old friend who was frowning a bit, “what does that mean?”

   Wong glanced toward the doorway, “it means that the entire time you were lost, he was worried. He barely slept, he barely ate, he studied incessantly. He cares but I don’t think he’d ever be the first to admit it.”

   Stephen looked away, unable to bear the thought when his heart was so freshly broken. Tony Stark loved his friends with all his heart and that was all Stephen was, a good friend that he felt responsible for bringing back home. He’d already gotten his happy ending in the other dimension and he wouldn’t be so selfish as to demand another one.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said in the last one, no upload tomorrow (May 23) so enjoy these extras :)


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